Key Cisco Exec Stepping Down

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Key Cisco Exec Stepping Down

One of Silicon Valley's most prolific entrepreneurs is leaving Cisco Systems, less than a year after he joined the data-networking leader.

A source close to the company said Bill Carrico would step down as the head of Cisco Systems' small- and medium-sized business unit on Thursday. Carrico will be succeeded by Charlie Giancarlo, who now heads Cisco's global alliances business.

The unit Carrico headed has revenues of some US$2 billion a year and is key for Cisco (CSCO), analysts said, because sales to corporate customers are slowing.

Carrico, 48, is married to Cisco's chief technology officer, Judy Estrin. He joined Cisco in March 1998 when Precept Software – founded by Estrin and Carrico – was bought by Cisco. Estrin, the other half of Silicon Valley's most famous husband and wife team, joined Cisco immediately as chief technology officer. She will remain with the company.

The source said that Carrico had been named to head Cicso's small- and medium-sized business unit in an interim capacity, until a permanent candidate could be found. Carrico is leaving the corporate realm to return to the world of start-ups, where his passion lies, the source said.

Carrico was co-founder of 3Com, as well as its president and chief executive at one time. Before Precept, Carrico and Estrin co-founded Networking Computing Devices, a maker of computer terminals, as well as Bridge Communications, a pioneer in routers and communications servers which was bought by 3Com in 1987.

Back to topMillennium travel forecast: Your baggage may go astray, but the airline industry now says that should be the extent of Y2K's effect on air travel.

Airport escalators and the baggage carousel might malfunction, but "take safety off the agenda," said Kevin Dobby, the executive in charge of coordinating the International Air Transport Association's Year 2000 problem. The IATA represents 262 airlines worldwide.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said on Sunday that the country's air-traffic control system had passed a major public test to see if it could cope with Y2K.

Dobby, appearing at an airline financial management conference on Wednesday, said there remained a few trouble spots worldwide, although "Asia's not as bad as we thought," he said. And even if the radar at a small overseas airport failed come 1-1-2000, there would be communications between the ground, the air traffic control system, and the airplane, Dobby said.

5. Back to topAussie online: Australia's richest man is planning to cash in on the sky-high valuations of Internet offerings.

Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting said Thursday it will take its PBL Online unit public this summer, and in the process will change its name to "ecorp." The company didn't say whether it would list on the Australian Stock Exchange or on Wall Street, but analysts and sources speculated the Net spinoff was likely headed for Nasdaq.
Packer, who has a personal fortune of more than A$2 billion (US$1.26 billion), owns Australia's leading television network and has a publishing empire which includes magazines and a major stake in the upmarket newspaper group John Fairfax Holdings.
Ecorp's major online investment is the site [ninemsn](http://ninemsn.com.au/), a 50-50 joint venture with Microsoft that links to PBL's magazine and television news and lifestyle content. Analysts believe PBL will somehow marry its planned merger with Melbourne-based casino operator Crown with its online operations to produce Internet gambling, but the company said it has no such plans at this time.
5\. [Back to top](#top) __Unisys easily beats The Street__ Unisys on Thursday reported a 77 percent jump in first-quarter profits, far ahead of Wall Street expectations amid an unexpectedly strong surge in orders for its business computers.
Net income after taxes rose to $111.2 million, or 32 cents per share (after accounting for dilution from stock options and preferred dividends), up from $62.7 million, or 14 cents per diluted share, in the first quarter of 1998. The consensus among analysts had been for Unisys ([UIS](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=uis)) to report earnings of 24 cents, according to First Call.
The quarter's double-digit growth stemmed from a surge in services and unexpectedly strong sales of ClearPath servers, Unisys' powerful business computers, giving it greater confidence in the company's outlook for 1999 and beyond, Larry Weinbach, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Unisys has been counting on an unusually strong first half of 1999 to offset potential slowness in the second half, when purchasing of new corporate computers are expected to slow in order to allow time to fix potential Year 2000 glitches in existing computer systems, a spokesman said.
5\. [Back to top](#top)__Globalstar:__ Russia launched a set of four Globalstar communications satellites on Thursday in Kazakhstan, the third such launch in the company's [beleaguered effort](https://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/17824.html) to offer worldwide mobile telephone service.
Globalstar lost 12 satellites in a single rocket explosion in September 1998 at the same launchpad, and the program had been stymied by snags in a trade agreement between the United States and Russia.
The launches are important to Russia's space operation, too. It earns precious cash from commercial launches, but the United States has threatened to curb expansion of the program if Russia does not end what Washington says are exports of nuclear and missile technology to Iran.
4\. [Back to top](#top)*Reuters contributed to this report.*